Last month I got a call from the Wall Street Journal. They needed some photos to go with a story, so, of course, I was thinking business profile, CEO portrait, news at the capitol or something like that. To my surprise, the editor said “Pickleball.”
What? What is pickleball? And why would the Wall Street Journal of all publications be interested in it?
Pickleball has nothing to do with pickles. I know you’re disappointed, so was I. It’s a tennis-like game played on a badminton court with a low-mounted tennis net, and players use a wiffle ball and a hard paddle. (Click here to learn more.)
The Wall Street Journal was interested in these 60-year-old twin brothers, Joe and John Torres of San Antonio, who play pickleball competitively. It’s not the story you’d think of for the WSJ, but it was featured in their fitness section on July 16.
Anyway, I was excited about this assignment. It was my first shoot for the WSJ and it was not only a sports assignment, but it was a sport I had never seen before. Add in the twin factor on top of that and well, I was one happy photographer.
When I arrived at the tennis center in San Antonio, I met Joe and John and their friends. They were all very nice and excited to have me there.
I took a look at the facilities and there wasn’t much to work with. The pickleball court was sort of squished in the middle of surrounding tennis courts and other facilities, and it didn’t look like it had been kept up very well. Nevertheless, I had to find a good spot for a portrait.
That’s what I ended up going with. That’s the pickleball court in the background. I had to stand on a chair and shoot down to avoid capturing large amounts of powerlines and portions of facility disrepair, and I had to adjust my flash so the partially shaded background would look more even. We tried a couple different locations, but tennis courts didn’t seem fitting and it was difficult to find a clean background.
After the portrait was taken, it was time to play some pickleball. I shot action like I would shoot tennis with my D700 and 80-200mm f2.8 lens, then I tried to get creative. I sat at the net and shot from below with my D700 and 24-70 f2.8 lens, risking getting hit by a wiffle ball. I got hit a couple times, but fortunately, wiffle balls don’t hurt.
Stan Crowley, a friend of Joe and John, captured a few seconds of me shooting at the net.
20130713 082239 from Landis Images on Vimeo.
The last things to take care of were the detail shots of medals and paddles.
I stuck around for a little while to see if I could get something that I hadn’t gotten already. I ended up with some wide images and some interaction, but nothing spectacular.
After that I felt like I had covered this story as well as it was going to be covered, so I thanked my new friends and went on my way.
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